By Devin O'Donnell On any given day of the school year, one might walk into the average classroom of an Humanities course situated in the Rhetoric school and find students gathered around a text. Surely, there would be a teacher present, either at the front of the...
Andrew Kern
The Glory of Mimetic Teaching
The Glory of Mimetic Teaching August 5, 2022 Written By: Andrew Kern Originally published in ClassisSpring 2025, Volume XXXII Issue 2It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially...
The Grammar of My Morning Coffee
If you have spent any time in classical education circles over the past few decades, you will have encountered Dorothy Sayers. Her essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” holds a canonical position in renewal of classical Christian education. Sayers directed us to look...
Abdication for Dummies: The Best Ways to Ruin a Classical Christian Education
Originally published in Classis Volume XVII, No. 4 By Ty Fischer Recently, I was talking with a seasoned headmaster from another ACCS school. It was his second day of school—we had yet to start. He had to cut away from the conversation for a moment. When he came back...
Common Objects of Love
Survey a number of parents on the most important aspect of a school, and the majority will say “community.” Community is a fashionable word. Everyone talks about building community, being in community, or doing life together. Because man is a political animal, this is...
Using Euclid to Teach Geometry
First published in Classis Volume XVIII, No. 2 Jason Sells Much has been written in the classical Christian school movement about the Great Books, the use of original sources, and the importance of Latin and Greek, but where does mathematics fit in? A study of...
Avoiding the Tyranny of Technique in the Classroom: Applying Jacques Ellul’s Warning to Education
Originally published in Classis Volume XX, No. 3 By Joshua Pauling In 1954, French theologian, sociologist, and legal scholar Jacques Ellul published a massive tome entitled La Technique. Translated into English ten years later as The Technological Society,1 the book...
Lessons John Amos Comenius Can Teach
Originally published in Classis Volume XX, No. 2 By Matthew Allen John Amos Comenius has long been considered a forgotten hero of the Reformation era. Yet we, as classical Christian educators, have more to learn from Comenius than anyone else, for he is one of us....
The Common Core and the Classical Tradition
Volume XXIII, No. 3 When I first heard the Common Core discussed in a news report, I had a schizophrenic reaction. Being an ardent advocate for the classical tradition of education, I responded positively to its captivating name. Classical educators love and support...
The Case for Classical Languages
The Case for Classical Languages August 5, 2022 Written By: Tim Griffith, New Saint Andrews College Originally published in ClassisSpring 2024, Volume XXXI Issue 3This article was adapted from a presentation entitled “A Spicy Manifesto on Classical Languages” given...